Agreed. For me, I think it reminds me of the world as it was before, the world that allowed people to say things like we’d reached the end of history, and of the promise of a beautiful future, never to be, not only for all the victims, but for the world at large.

For me the world really changed. Bush had just become president and it seemed like we were focusing on domestic issues and we would refrain from international issues and just better ourselves. We weren’t very blood thirsty in the mid/late 90’s, it was easier to bomb shit than try any boots on the ground. After that day everyone was blood thirsty. Hearing fighters fly CAPs over suburbia became normal by October. Friends signing up for war was the norm. Watching the news about anthrax letters and beltway snipers became boring. Everything changed.

I remember that feeling well. You knew that our country was never going to be like it was on September 10, 2001. You knew there would be war, but not with whom. You knew that you would remember that moment and that day forever. A lot was lost that day, most importantly many innocent lives. Yes - we also lost our innocence and then some. Even 18 years later the scale of it seems hard to believe.

In the days/weeks/months after 9/11, everybody on the planet was grieving for America. The outpouring of international support and sympathy was immense. For a short while, we were all New Yorkers, all Americans... Then the Bush & Co. started beating the drums of war, and nothing's been the same since.

Australian here - I was in high school when it happened. All lessons were cancelled and we were watching the news for every class instead, with the teachers trying to their best to help us make sense of it all, what it may mean for us and for the world.

They couldn't have predicted that from that moment onward, the world wouldn't be the same and in many ways actually 'go backward'.

To a certain extent war was needed. It was just the way that things were handled and then this Iraq business that was terrible. Hunting down UBL and AQ on every corner of the globe including some sort of Afghan invasion was justified and necessary.

still waiting to hear your elaborate and better plans how to have handled it when the most powerful nation on earth had its ethos disrupted and trampled upon by radical islam. what would your shrewd decision have been? offer the middle east free passports? say don't worry about it? i absolutely loathe GW, but it's not as if options weren't limited

Not going to war with Iraq over bad intelligence. Clearest way to not screw over the region for the next 20 years and would've saved a ton of lives and money as well. With no power vacuum, there would be less chance of Syria and Iraq destabilizing to ISIL, leading to a much more manageable amount of refugees today.

Focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and finding UBL. Don't get distracted by a global war on terror, instead prepare for the coming great power struggle.

I was only one when it happened. It remained in my mind as one of my earliest memories. Obviously I was too young to get a proper understanding what happened and over the years that sense of loss has begun to sink in. Every photo I see of modern day Manhattan appears as if it is missing something, however it is difficult to pin point exactly what it is.

It's also a coincidence yes but it shows something that would come later p sure foreshadowing happens outside of the protagonists minds eye like he sees something normal then the normal becomes somthing else later

Daniel Lewin was the first person to fall that day. Seat 9B, American Airlines flight 11. He attempted to take down the terrorists and foil the highjacking but didn't realize there was another one sitting behind him. He was stabbed to death over Massachusetts, before his plane was flown into the North Tower.

Danny would be my father-in-law right now if not for this day. His legacy survives to this day through his company, Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), and his wonderful and family, who despite being worth over $1 Billion USD, manage to be even more down-to-earth and generous than most average folks. I speak from experience when I say these people are some of the most amazing that I've met. They pushed through the toughness of losing a family member and got through it (mostly) in tact- and that's damn respectable!

Since then time has progressed, the world has changed and moved on, and the Lewin family has moved with it. I know something went right because my sister dated one of Danny's two sons for roughly 5.5 years before eventually marrying in July, 2018. They are currently happy as could be together and I will get to see both of them again in a couple weeks. Truly a magnificent final outcome and about as close to a happy ending as I could hope to realistically see. I will leave off with saying that although what happened was awful, if it wasn't for Danny's (untimely) death, his son and my sister may very well have never met, fell in love, and got married.

Thank you for reading this far through my personal little rant. It means a lot.

For those who do not know, Akamai Technologies, born out of Danny Lewin's PhD thesis at MIT gave the world the concept of globally distributed content delivery networks (CDN) which allows websites that get millions of users from across the world to function smoothly without getting overloaded, a prime example of it being Reddit itself.

Yes. There is a great biography of him was "No Better Time". Also the CDN was the main thing for Akamai. But nowadays they are pushing to B2B cybersecurity. It put a smile on my face when I was trying to learn some hacking skills and my query requests were being denied by Starbucks' security system (which just happened to be made by Akamai).

I remember going to the observation deck at the WTC in 1999, then standing outside on the corner looking up at them and thinking about what kind of destruction would have happened if they had fallen in the ‘93 attack. Really haunted me when it happened two years later. Remember the victims.

I wasn't born when it happened, but my mom told me she and her friend traveled to New York and stood at one of the top floors of one of the towers during June of that year. I am thankful she wasn't there on that day, and my heart goes out to everyone who lost their lives or was affected in some way by that event

I was born two months after 9/11 I remember being brought up in the after match of everything. Bush was the first president I remember being alive to witness. Kids still solemnly pledged their allegiance to the flag and had one hand on their heart. For me 9/11 was something you thought about every time recited the pledge of allegiance I’m not sure if it’s cause of the lack of education about it now a days but people are starting to forget, kids these days don’t have a damn clue. Everything changed but it was inevitable. Change was set in motion long before the attacks had been planned. I’m convinced that the world needed in 2008 when the housing crises happened and this is just purgatory... time is relative.. America is going to fall eventually and it will be at the fault of the parties that are tearing this country apart from the inside out.

Home of the free land of the brave. So privileged to live here I will never forever the sacrifices made for this country and the brave souls who stood up for what was right in the midst of being surrounded by corruption, greed, death, fucking oil. Etc. That’s the América that I want to remember

I was born two years after 9/11 and my aunt was at JFK and was supposed to board a connection flight to Richmond. The flight got canceled and she had to rent a car and drive 8 hours down here. I love aviation and fly a lot overseas but every time i step in a plane I get terrified. Definitely my worst fear

I damn well have seen the whole thing. She downplays the fact that radical Islam staged an attack on american soil as “some people did something” to push funding for CAIR, an organization with known ties to terrorist groups as well.

It’s not political. It personal.

I could care less for being downvoted. If it means getting the truth out then so be it, I’ll wear it as a badge of honor.

Where the fuck do you live? Whatever your imagined injury from this day I guarantee you it pales in comparison to those who actually lost family members, coworkers, friends and a sense of innocence. My train station parking lot was on the front cover of the Times with the 10 cars sitting there at 3 am on the 12th. I’m sure nothing will change your small-mindedness, but do not think you are fighting for their memory, you are fighting for your own bigotry and misplaced anger.

Wrong district, but yes I have lived in the New York area for my entire life. You obviously don’t. Ironic that you can literally flyover your shithole state because you are in an aviation sub hahahaha.

Only spiraled us into 7 wars. God bless those 3k we lost. We only displaced millions of people and destabilized an entire continent. God bless Raytheon, Northrop, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. 9/11!